Virginia

William Byrd III House, Williamsburg, Virginia (37.269511, -76.706467)

Primary Structure Felling Date: Winter 1749/50

King posts (4/4) 1749 (C); Principal rafter (0/1); Joists (3/6) 1749 (C), 1716; Brace (1/1) 1746; Common rafters (0/2); Collar (0/1). Site Master 1637-1749 WBTVAx1 (Pine) (t = 7.47 VA023; 7.47 PEARx1; 6.36 BPTS).

The William Byrd III House is one of the finest mid-18th century Georgian Houses surviving in Williamsburg or Virginia as a whole. It is two rooms deep and a story and a half high, with the superior main-floor rooms paired at the front and a best bedchamber on the west upstairs. High-quality woodwork and a group of English red sandstone mantels survive in place. The house was owned by William Byrd III, builder of 1751 Westover, from the early 1770s till his suicide in 1777. It was substantially refurbished in 1899-1900.

Dendrochronological analysis has shown that the original structure was built in the winter of 1749/50 or shortly thereafter.

Worthington, M J and Seiter, J I 2015 “The Tree-Ring Dating of the William Byrd III House, Williamsburg, Virginia” unpublished Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory archive report 2015/15

Photograph: Jeffrey Klee, Colonial Williamsburg Architectural Research Department

Oxford

Tree-Ring

Laboratory

The Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory provides cutting-edge commercial dendrochronological services to homeowners, architectural historians, and cultural resource managers. READ MORE

Contact Information

Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory

25 E. Montgomery St.
Baltimore, MD 21230

410-929-1520